Kimball Days 2003 is history for another year. This year was a very successful year by all reports. From what I saw, the attendance was greater than in any other year I’ve been involved in Kimball Days. The greater attendance can be attributed to the beautiful weather and the hard work of many people, along with the numerous new events. Friday, Aug. 8 Pedal Pull Kimball Days begins each year with a state sanctioned pedal pull for children ages 4-11. Results from the pedal pull appeared in last week’s issue of the Tri-County News. Thank you to the Kimball Wrestling Association for all the hard work, and to St. Anne’s Catholic Church for the use of the parking lot for the event. Kimball Area Historical Society The picnic supper at the Willow Creek Park shelter was new this year, and very well attended. The Kimball Area Historical Society hosted the event and reported that more than 200 people were served. The Historical Society also hosted a display at city hall from late Friday afternoon through Sunday. More than 500 people visited the historical display. If you see one of the society members, tell them that you enjoyed the display and appreciate all their hard work. Euchre tournament I was given a report that more than four tables of euchre were played at the Kimball Legion’s euchre tournament. Little Miss Kimball Little Miss Kimball festivities began with a parade of the 2002 royalty and the 10 candidates vying for Little Miss Kimball 2003. The parade was led by Police Chief Todd Rohloff. Coronation took place in the Kimball Area High School cafetorium. Last year’s princesses Natalie Stein and Rachel Arnold crowned the 2003 princesses Elizabeth Kastanek, daughter of Jeff and Becky Kastanek, and Johnna Johnson-Talbot, daughter of Katherine Johnson and Timothy J. Talbot. The 2003 princesses were sponsored by Hurk Drywall and Oak Place Apartments, respectively. The 2002 queen, Bethany Libbesmeier crowned Melody Rose as Little Miss Kimball 2003. Melody is the daughter of Dan and Ronnie Rose. She was sponsored by the American Legion Auxiliary. Coloring contest winners were Hannah Serbus, daughter of Monte and Amy Serbus, in the 6-7-year-old category, and Jenna Maus, daughter of Ed and Sue Maus, in the 8-10-year-old category. Photographs of the candidates were donated by Images by Marguerite. Thank you, Margie, for doing this for Kimball Days. Thanks to Stanley’s Family Restaurant for donating the pizza for the pizza party following the judging Wednesday evening. Thanks to all the sponsors, the car owners and drivers, Mom’s Cafe and Stanley’s Family Restaurant for donating gift certificates for the contestants, the Kimball Area Schools for use of the buildings, Kris O’Brien for her help at the school, and most of all, to the girls and their parents for participating in all the various Kimball Days events. Congratulations to the new royalty. Teen Dance The teen dance took place in the cafetorium at KAHS this year – it was nice to have air conditioning. Between 175-200 teens attended the dance. Heartland Express provided the music, the FFA provided the concession stand, and the following people volunteered as chaperones: DuWayne Orbeck, Dave Mackereth, Jeremy Jeppesen and Heather Jeno. Special thanks to the kids attending the event and to the chaperones – without you there could not be a teen dance. The teen dance was sponsored by the Kimball Area Fire Relief Association. Friday evening events The “warm-up party” at the Main Street Pub was well-attended. Music was provided by Heartland Express. The highlight of the evening was the fireworks. Mark outdid himself this year – they were beautiful. If you did not get a chance to see them, the display lasted 15 minutes with numerous fireworks shooting off at once. Mark Jansky volunteers to do the fireworks each year. He orders the fireworks, picks them up and sets them off. Thanks for a job well done. Money for the fireworks came from donations by area businesses and the city of Kimball vendors. Thanks for your donations. Saturday, Aug. 9 Morning sporting events Beautiful weather welcomed Saturday’s events which began with the softball tournament at Willow Creek Park, sponsored by the Fire Relief Association. New this year was a fishing tournament held at Lake Marie at the Mill Dam. First place went to Jason Cleveland and Jeremy Jeppesen with 9.8 pounds of fish. Second place went to Brent Hilbert and Jason Wesenberg with 2.4 pounds of fish. Thanks to all who donated door prizes for the event: A M Maus and Son, Main Street Pub, Hair Dos, Knaus Sausage House, Anthony’s Lawn Statues, American Legion Post #261, Gander Mountain and Sportsman’s Warehouse. Thank you to Janet Cleveland and Heather Jeno for volunteering their time and help at the tournament. I would also like to thank Brian Mies for his help in setting up the fishing tournament and to Concordia Lutheran Church for the parking space. Three-on-three basketball was organized by Randy Sauk-kola this year. The tournament took place at KAHS. All proceeds went to the Don Nystrom family. Volleyball and horseshoe tournaments were sponsored by the Kimball Lions Club. New this year – Kids Fun Run and the Business Expo The Kids Fun Run for preschool and elementary children was new this year. The event was sponsored by Kimball Community Education. Results were listed in last week’s issue of the Tri-County News. Another new event was the Business Expo and Sidewalk Sale chaired by Mayor Karla Davis. Area businesses set up stands downtown and handed out information about their businesses. I heard many good comments about the expo. Nice job, Karla. Food vendors If you were hungry, there was plenty of food supplied by the following vendors: Kimball United Methodist Church, Friends of the Library, Holy Cross School, Teresa Stauber, Sons of the American Legion (SAL), Zion United Methodist Church, Kimball Youth Wrestling Association, the T.A.G. group, Kimball Youth Wrestling Association, Kimball Express-O and Kimball Boy Scouts. Thanks to all the vendors for all the good food available. Children’s games There were children’s games provided by the Kimball Youth Wrestling Association and the Kimball American Legion Auxiliary. The 40/8 train was once again a big hit. Thanks to Milt Schmidt, who takes care of the train each year. The petting zoo and pony rides sponsored by the American Legion were enjoyed by many, as was the Pepsi balloon. Thanks to all for making the day enjoyable for kids and adults alike. Kiddie parade The Fire Relief Association sponsored the Kiddie Parade once again this year, and Fuzzy Hinz donated treats for everyone in the parade. Thank you both for making the Kiddie Parade possible. Wheelchair basketball The Wheelchair Basketball exhibition took place at KAHS and was enjoyed by everyone who attended. Thanks to Heidi Schwictenberg for organizing the event. Golf tournament The Kimball Golf Club held its 2nd annual golf tournament which brought in 40 participants. First place went to the team of Mary Spaulding, Neal Spaulding, Larry Jensen, Tom Schreiner and Howie Bahn. Second place went to the team of Randy Tonnel, Mary Tonnel, John Tonnel, Al Henfling and John Boeckman. Congratulations to the winners and thanks to Judd for organizing the event and to everyone who participated. Pork chop dinner The Frederick A. Metcalf Post #261 of the American Legion sponsored its popular pork chop dinner. More than 200 people were served and the legion ran out of everything. Thanks to everyone for their hard work over the weekend. Street dance Diamond Back once again provided music for the street dance, which had a record attendance this year. The event was sponsored by the Main Street Pub and the Fire Relief Association. Thanks for the terrific hamburgers and cheeseburgers – everyone raved about how good the food was. Volunteers from the Watkins Fire Department and diversiCOM helped in the beer and food stands. Thanks to Frank Schiefelbein and Schiefelbein Farms for donating the hamburger. Sunday, Aug. 10 Pancake breakfast The weather didn’t look very promising in
the morning, but after a short while the clouds left and the skies turned blue, once again helping attendance for the day. The Lions Club held its annual pancake breakfast which served more than 500 people. Car show The car show had 142 registrations this year. Winners in the various divisions are as follows: Stock cars 1900-1930 First place went to Jerry Solbery, second place to Fian Veit and third place to Wayne Paulson. Stock Cars 1930-1959 First place went to Glen Graunke, second place to Louis Vogel and third place to Arlen Samela. Stock Cars 1960-1969 First place went to Susie Milbrandt, second place went to Ken Martin and third place went to Duane Nordling. Stock Cars 1970-present First place went to Tyler Laney, second place to Harry Grimley and third place to Jeannie Tessmer. Stock trucks First place went to Russ Emberland, second place went to Steve Edwards and third place to Laurie Laney. Modified trucks First place went to Ben Neu, second place to Ashley Martin and third place to Mike Arens. 1900-1934 street cars First place went to Tom Stapel and second place to Robert Roepke. 1935-1948 Street Rods First place went to Branden ScLeuble, second place to Kirk Dickinson and third place to Mike Fischer. 1949-1964 Modifieds First place went to Pat Manull, second place to Porky Buske and third place to Mark Schmidt. 1965-present Modifieds First place went to Neal Hanson, second place to Jerome Rothstein, third place to Jim Robinson and fourth place to Dan Condon. 1964-1969 Muscle Cars First place went to Charlie Brigham, second place to Keith Fautsch and third place to Doug Hawkinson. 1970-present Muscle Cars First place went to John Adair, second place to Keith Evenson and third place to Chris Kneip. Convertibles First place went to Chuck Kuechle, second place went to Don Blongen, third place to Larry Engle and fourth place to Paul Arnold. Tractors – all years First place went to Lenny Dzuik, second place to Tom Konz and third place to Linda Rose. Motorcycles First place went to Dale Steinbern, second place to Jim Orm and third place to Pete Wendolek. Pedal Cars First place went to John Hoppe, second place to Jordan Edwards and third place to Brandon Edwards. Snowmobiles up to 1969 First and second place went to Kevin Lehse and third place went to Kevin Albers. Snowmobiles 1970-1980 First place went to Peter Marten, second place went to Don Chan and third place went to Jeremy Jorgensen. Thanks to Steve Edwards, Mike and Mary Fsicher, and all their helpers for all the hard work in organizing this event. Thanks to all who brought a food shelf donation to the car show. Thanks to Hendricks Bus Service for providing the shuttle to guests traveling from the pancake breakfast to the car show. I heard many people expressing their appreciation for this service. Food at the car show was provided by Holy Cross School, Sons of the American Legion, Teresa Stauber and Mom’s Caring Hands (Shelly Olson). Airplane show The Granite City Radio Controlled Airplane show was well-attended. They told me they had more spectators than ever before. Grande Day Parade The Grande Day Parade had 85 units this year. I would like to thank everyone who had a unit in the parade, and to all the spectators who came and watched. Also, thanks to KAHS and St. Anne’s Catholic Church for use of their facilities for the line-up and dispersing. I would also like to thank Clayton and Mabel Linn for honoring the city of Kimball as the Grand Marshals for this year’s parade. I would like to thank Nick and Kristen Wittrock, Cary Maus, Deb Reinert, Heather Jeno, Bobby Olson and anyone else who helped with the parade line-up – this is the biggest job of the whole weekend. After the parade, many parade-goers went down to the picnic shelter for their annual Mexican Village treat. The owner told me that he had a very good turnout and looks forward to next year. I would like to thank everyone who supported them. Softball tournament The softball tournament had 14 teams this year. Winners were as follows. Shorty and Lia’s won over Snap-On, 11-1. Thanks to Jim Young and Deb Reinert for putting together and running the tournament. I know there is a lot of hard work that goes into this. Benefit spaghetti dinner The final event of the day was a benefit spaghetti dinner at Powder Ridge for the Don Nystrom Family. The event was sponsored by the Kimball chapter of the FFA. More than 600 people were in attendance. I would like to thank the FFA, especially Aaron Dahlinger and Chris Sheehan for organizing the event, and Powder Ridge for the use of their facilies. To all those supporting the benefit, I’m sure the Nystrom family is very thankful. Final thoughts This pretty much ends a very successful weekend. I especially would like to thank the Kimball Maintenance Department and the Kimball Police Department – without these guys the weekend would never happen. Thanks to the Kimball Golf Club for the use of the golf cars for Deb and me. Thanks to the Tri-County News for all the coverage they gave to Kimball Days events. Thank you to the council for the support you showed Kimball Days. Thanks to Kuechle Underground and the other construction companies for working long, hard days to prepare Hazel Avenue for Kimball Days. Thanks to John Clement and Jeremy Jeppesen for helping with the parade marking, to Bobbi Olson for all her help with Kimball Days, but especially to Deb Reinert for all her work on Kimball Days. This was our 5th year of planning Kimball Days together. I truly appreciate Deb for all the help but especially the friendship that has developed over this project. We make a good work team together. If I have missed anyone or any event, I ap
